De-weaponization by Design

Brass knuckles, on a functional level, are weapons kitsch. Yet the form remains menacing, and thus potent material for design-riffing. Here are a few of the examples I've collected, and what they say about subverting, and perverting, an object devised for violence.

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Interface Runes

Recently I discovered, in a box full of dusty computer/device manuals and the like, the “Graffiti Reference Card” and stickers that came with a Palm Pilot I owned years ago. It felt like discovering evidence of a dead language, a set of uncanny interaction-design runes.

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Selling Stories With Stuff

What's bothersome about the way many observers discuss the importance of "story" is that they treat it as a tool, a means to an end, something that exists only in the service of "stuff." But a good story is no means to an an end: It is an end, with a significance all its own.

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Rob Walker is a technology/culture columnist for Yahoo News. He is the former Consumed columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and has contributed to many publications. He is co-editor (with Joshua Glenn) of the book Significant Objects: 100 Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things, and author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are.

Recent Book

Significant Objects: 100 Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things
Edited by Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn
Fantagraphics, 2012
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Other Essays: 2010-2012

Etsy Goes Pro
Wired, October 2012

Tumblr Follows Its ♥
The New York Times Magazine, July 12, 2012

What It Takes To Be A 'Tuber
The New York Times Magazine, June 28, 2012

A Product of Creative Friction
The New York Times Magazine, June 3, 2012

This Brand Is Your Brand
OnEarth Magazine, May 31, 2012

MakerBot's Meta-Tools
Fast Company, January 2012

Politics As Entertainment
The New York Times Magazine, January 4, 2012

The Dog Ate My Paycheck
Marketplace, December 16, 2011

Recognizably Anonymous
December 8, 2011: Slate

A Visual Object for the Digital Era
December 2011: The Atlantic

What Percent Are You, Really?
November 29, 2011: Marketplace

The Machine That Makes You Musical
October 23, 2011: The New York Times

The Cult of Bang & Olufsen
October 2011: Wired

4CP Friday: Effacement
September 2011: HiLobrow

Replacement Therapy
September 2011: The Atlantic

Not All Consumers Are Equal
August 18, 2011: Marketplace

The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter
August 5, 2011: The New York Times Magazine

The Swan Song of the Top 40
July 15, 2011: The New York Times Magazine

Foursquare's Branding With Badges
July 5, 2011: Slate

Failure Chic
June 16, 2011: Marketplace

Hiring "the crowd" for a design job
May 31, 2011: Slate

Advertising that's "relevant" — but to whom?
May 23, 2011: Marketplace

Disliking "Dislike"
March 31, 2011: Marketplace

The Propaganda of Concern
March 22, 2011: Slate

The Sound of Radiolab
The New York Times Magazine, April 7, 2011

Disliking "Dislike"
Marketplace, March 31, 2011

Fun Stuff (Digital Collections)
The New York Times Magazine, February 11, 2011

Go Figure (Scalies)
The New York Times Magazine, February 4, 2011

Ghosts In The Machine
The New York Times Magazine, January 9, 2011

Collecting: Bicentennial Quarters
DesignObserver.com December 9, 2010

Go Figure (Scalies)
The New York Times Magazine, February 4, 2011

The Hidden: Filtering "Friends" On Facebook
TheAtlatntic.com, October 4, 2010

Hearing Things (Music Objects)
The New York Times Magazine, September 10, 2010

Taking Lulz (Sort of) Seriously
The New York Times Magazine, July 16, 2010

Brilliant Mistakes (Digital Antiquing)
The New York Times Magazine, July 25, 2010

Valuing $0 (Gifts)
The New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2010

Rewind (The Cassette)
The New York Times Magazine, April 23, 2010

Slightly Used (Best Made Ax)
The New York Times Magazine, April 3, 2010

Clutter, Objects, Joy
Murketing.com, March 4, 2010

Shopping Our Way To Safety (Review)
The Journal of Industrial Ecology, February 2010

The Unlikely Success of Boing Boing
Fast Company, December 2010/January 2010

Site and Sound: One Home, Sixteen Objects and the Things We Listen to Now
Essay for Rewind, Remix, Replay exhibition at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, January 20, 2010

Complete List >>